BOSTON (WHDH) - Three Boston police officers suffered serious injuries while attempting to arrest a man at the Boston Public Library’s main branch on Tuesday morning, police said.
Officers responding to a report of an assault and battery in progress at the Copley Branch around 8:30 a.m. spoke with staffers who pointed them in the direction of a man who was seen publicly masturbating in front of the library, according to the Boston Police Department.
The suspect, who police identified as 43-year-old Cornelio Conley, allegedly became combative and assaulted a library staffer when they asked him to leave.
When officers approached Conley and tried to arrest him, he threw a tarp at one officer before punching and biting all three of them, police said. The officers were ultimately forced to subdue him with pepper spray.
All three officers were taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Conley was treated for exposure to pepper spray.
Conley has since been arraigned in Boston Municipal Court on charges including lewd, wanton, and lascivious conduct, two counts of assault and battery, four counts of assault and battery on a police officer, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, malicious destruction of property, and resisting arrest.
An investigation remains ongoing.
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